Spreading the Word on Earth Overshoot Day 2014

Media outlets around the world helped share the news of Earth Overshoot Day this year, and thanks to countless partners and supporters, a conversation about our planet’s ecological deficit also took off on social media.

Earth Overshoot Day is an annual observance meant to bring attention to the risks of humanity’s growing ecological deficit. This year, August 19 marked the date when humanity exhausted nature’s budget for the entire year.

Highlights of Earth Overshoot Day 2014 media coverage included articles in Le Monde in France, El Mundo in Spain, and the Brasil Post in Brazil. Earth Overshoot Day also made the front page of La Stampa in Italy for the second year in a row. An online article in The Guardian in the UK generated 92 comments. In Switzerland, a Q&A with Bruno Oberle, director of the Swiss Ministry of Environment, was featured on the ministry’s website.

Les Echos in France published an article about Earth Overshoot Day as well as a lengthy Q&A with Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel. Thomson Reuters ran an op-ed by CEO Susan Burns on the link between resource restraints and national economics. Reuters TV also produced a segment about Earth Overshoot Day featuring our partner, Wendy Arenas, founder and executive director of ALISOS - Alianzas para la Sostenibilidad, in Columbia, which made Thomson Reuters’ list of top 100 stories for the day.

In Asia, Beijing News ran a feature on Earth Overshoot Day in its Sunday Earth Supplement. In Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the five national newspapers there, featured a short article, and Naoki Adachi, a leading voice in the corporate social responsibility field, wrote a blog post on Earth Overshoot Day.

A TV news station in France took a lighter approach to the Earth Overshoot Day news, with clips of a small inflatable globe rolling through the streets.

A coalition of German activists in Berlin led by INKOTA used an even larger inflatable Earth to draw attention to Earth Overshoot Day at a gathering in Alexanderplatz. Participants in the event symbolically sucked the resources from the Earth until it collapsed onto the ground as part of their call for a more sustainable use of resources to enable a good life for future generations.

We also received entertaining pictures from Berlin of a Segway race from an Earth Overshoot Day-inspired event organized by British performance Ellie Harrison. After “speeding” around a track, the racers headed into town to spread the word about global resource constraints. Why Segways? As Harrison explained, “These popular, but profoundly annoying, machines symbolise the stupidity of our species gratuitously wasting money and resources, whilst simultaneously preventing access to the gentle exercise that all bodies need to stay healthy.”

In China, students participated in an Earth Overshoot Day activity that involved answering questions and performing tasks to reduce the planet’s Ecological Footprint. Our partners WWF-China helped coordinate that event in addition to getting the word out about Earth Overshoot Day throughout the country.

From Berlin, we received entertaining pictures of a Segway race from an Earth Overshoot Day-inspired event organized by British performance Ellie Harrison. After “speeding” around a track, the racers headed into town to spread the word about global resource constraints. Why Segways? As Harrison explained, “These popular, but profoundly annoying, machines symbolise the stupidity of our species gratuitously wasting money and resources, whilst simultaneously preventing access to the gentle exercise that all bodies need to stay healthy.”

In the social media world, we were thrilled to see our first Facebook post announcing Earth Overshoot Day shared by more than 500 supporters. Our first Tweet on Earth Overshoot Day garnered nearly 42,000 impressions, according to Twitter.

Thank you for helping us raise awareness about Earth Overshoot Day and move a step closer toward ensuring our entire society lives well within the means of nature.